Life Or Something Like it
by Anarchist278
Summary: Sometimes reality just isn't what its cracked up to be and you find yourself in need of an escape. Who can Puck turn to when he reaches one of those moments in his life and how will she respond? Read to find out...
1. Baby of Mine

**AN:- Hi all. I know I should be working on my other fic but this idea popped into my head and just refused to leave me alone until I got it all out. It may be a pile of crap as I'm pretty sleep deprived and have had a very long day at work but I guess I'll let you guys be the judge of that. This is completely different to my other stories and I'm not even totally sure where its going to go after the next chapter so am rating it M to be on the safe side. This chapter is fairly short but is just an intro to see whether there is any interest. Hope you enjoy, will look forward to hearing what you think. **

**P.S Some of you may not like one of Puck's actions in this first chapter but to me it seemed in keeping with the Puck we have come to know so if you have a problem with it then I apologise but it kind of just wrote itself.**

**As always I own none of the characters apart from Sienna that is but would be more than happy to accept ownership of Mark Salling should the opportunity ever arise.**

The sound that woke him pierced his senses like a hot knife through butter. He raised his head from his desk, blinking in confusion for a moment. A piece of notebook paper sticking to his forehead for a moment before it fluttered down to the floor. _Oh fuck he'd fallen asleep again!!_ He looked longingly at his bed briefly before standing up practically sleepwalking his way to the kitchen. Just how long had it been since he'd been able to sleep through the night with no interruptions? With a sigh he grabbed the bottle from the refrigerator, placing it in the warmer, before leaning his head against the cool hardness of the refrigerator. For what seemed like the millionth time he wondered if this was all some huge mistake.

Somehow he'd never quite realised just how hard this was going to be. It seemed every person under the sun had tried to tell him in the months leading up to his baby girls birth what a difficult situation he was letting himself in for but he'd shrugged it off so certain that he knew better than them all. He'd pretended to listen as his own mother tried to explain to him just how difficult being a teenaged parent had been on her but he had been so sure that for him it would be different. He after all was Puck, the superstar of William McKinley High School's football team, practically a virtuoso on guitar and of course a major stud amongst the ladies. There was no way that he couldn't handle a baby. This however was not what he had anticipated at all, this was harder than anything he had ever done in his life and to turn to anyone for help would mean admitting failure and that was something he just could not bring himself to do.

He was brought out of his reverie by the beeping sound coming from the timer he had set up next to the warmer. Grabbing the bottle he first tested the temperature on his wrist before moving quickly down the hallway in the direction of the wails. Sometimes he found himself wishing for an escape, racking his brain trying to come up with some miracle solution that would allow him to still be a father to his little girl but would allow him the freedom his teenaged psyche craved. He couldn't remember how it felt to get a full night's sleep, let alone actually sleep till noon like he had prior to the birth. But he had insisted on this, had taken Quinn to court to ensure his parental rights and now he was trapped.

Stepping into the nursery all of his pessimistic thoughts and feelings automatically lifted as his eyes fell on the squalling infant. Her face was red from the exertion of her cries, her tiny hands curled into fists, tufts of dark hair sticking up all over the place, a foul aroma emitting from her diaper and she was still the single most perfect thing he had ever laid eyes on.

That day almost two months ago when she had been placed into his arms for the first time, he had fallen deeply and irrevocably in love with the tiny child that looked so much like the baby pictures his mom had of him all over her house and he had vowed to do whatever it took to make sure she never went without anything. He was never going to be a deadbeat dad like his own father. That of course had been easy to say as he gazed down upon the little bundle of joy sleeping so contentedly in his arms but it was quite another thing when the reality of 3am feedings set in and when he found himself pacing the floor night after night begging and pleading with his little girl to sleep. He genuinely didn't know how much longer he could continue like this. Picking Sienna up he tried to place the bottle in her mouth but she refused to take it, her face screwing up as she continued to scream. He rocked her gently humming the first few bars of Sweet Caroline hoping against hope that the song would calm her enough so that she would accept the bottle but it didn't work.

"Come on baby girl, please just drink. I know you must be hungry, please." He begged her to no avail. At that moment something inside of him snapped, what was he doing here, he was just a kid himself and here he was trying to be a dad. He rocked her in his arms more vigorously frustration welling inside of him. He couldn't do this anymore, he didn't think he'd had more than a few hours sleep in the past three nights and it was all just too much. His shifted Sienna's weight to one arm, his free hand unconsciously clenching into a fist as he slammed it into the wall in front of him. In his arms Sienna's cries quieted for a brief moment before continuing seemingly louder than ever if that was even possible.

He was losing it; he didn't know what to do. He tried to sing to the infant in his arms but his voice cracked as tears began to build up in his eyes.

"Please Sienna, just stop. I'll give you anything in the world if you just stop crying," he pleaded with her his voice losing the soothing quality it normally had when he spoke to his little girl. This was some kind of nightmare, it had to be. If he could just wake up surely it would all stop but try as he might he just couldn't do it.

He walked out of the room; Sienna still cradled in one arm, grabbing his phone, his face involuntarily wincing at the pain in his knuckles. He mentally scrolled through the list of people he could call his mind immediately ruling out his mother who was working night shift at the local hospital and instantly discarding the mother of his child who had made it more than clear that she wanted nothing to do with either one of them the one and only time he had seen her since Sienna's birth. Another name popped into his mind but he immediately tried to quash it, he didn't want to call her, didn't want to show weakness in front of her.

Almost before he knew what he was doing he had scrolled through the list of names in his phone, stopping when he reached hers. Her name and number flashed up tauntingly on his screen and his fingers curled tightly around the phone preparing to hurl it across the room as Sienna let out yet another ear piercing shriek.

Not allowing himself any more time to think and talk himself out of it he hit the call button almost hanging up twice before a sleepy voice answered at the other end.

"Rach, its Pu... ahh Noah. I need you."


	2. Reality Killed The Video Star

**AN:- Hi all. As per usual I owe everyone who reads my stories a huge apology for the delay in updates. Life has just been crazy lately and writing has simply had to take a back seat, not to mention the fact that my muse did a bit of a disappearing act over the holiday period but I guess its finally back. Hope you enjoy this little insight into what Miss Berry has been up to since Puck began his initiation into parenthood. A lot of this chapter has been devoted to her backstory but not all of it so hopefully you will enjoy all that it has to offer. I have absolutely no idea when I will be back with another update but I'll do my best to update this or one of my other stories in some kind of reasonable time frame. Looking forward to hearing what you think.**

At precisely 6am Rachel Berry's alarm sounded and she sat up in bed ready to face another day. Going downstairs she made her protein shake with banana and flaxseed oil just as she had done almost every morning for her entire high school career. By 6:10 she was on the Elliptical machine, working up a sweat and staring straight ahead, focusing on the piece of pink paper that had been taped there for the last five months. To an outside eye it would appear that Rachel Berry was just who she had always been as long as they didn't look too closely.

Having finished her workout she showered and dressed for school gathering up everything she needed before getting into her car and driving the short distance to William McKinley High School. She paused in the parking lot waiting for a group of footballers complete with letterman jackets and the seemingly mandatory Cheerio girlfriends to cross her path before making her way into the school careful not to make eye contact with any of them.

She walked to her locker, automatically responding to the greetings from Tina and Artie as she passed by them with a robotic smile and heaved a sigh of a relief when her locker came into view. Her brow creased into a frown moments later as Kurt and Mercedes stepped into view clearly waiting for her and she fought to school her features once more into a mask of pleasant neutrality.

She responded to their greetings and answered their questions, feigning interest and even attempted to introduce what she felt were stimulating conversational topics to the chatter, silently congratulating herself on once more fooling people into believing that she was still the same person she had always been. She failed to notice the looks that Kurt and Mercedes exchanged behind her back as she turned to her locker pulling from it the necessary books to get her through first period. But these days Rachel Berry rarely seemed to notice anything. So much had happened in the past few months; at times it literally made her head spin to think of it.

But thinking about it was not something she was going to do now, she had school and Glee and a career as a Broadway star beckoning on the horizon, she had everything she could possibly need, except for the fact that she didn't. Lately it had become mind-blowingly apparent that there was something major missing from her life and although she would never admit it, not even to herself, she knew exactly what it was.

She had thought for a while that she had filled the gap in her life when she and Finn had entered into a brief relationship but after two weeks of Finn being his totally sweet but completely oblivious self she had fast reached the realisation that the reality of being with the quarterback was not quite living up to the fairytale existence she had envisioned. That fact had been made abundantly clear when he had tried to take things to a level above the normally chaste kisses they shared and she had leapt from the bed in a state of almost panic when she had felt his hand on her thigh.

Finn of course had apologised profusely for rushing her and putting her in a situation that made her uncomfortable and that was when she had been confronted with the reality that it wasn't the situation she was uncomfortable with but rather the person who was with her. Her mind had flickered oh so briefly to a time several months before when a very similar situation with a very different person had made her anything but uncomfortable. At least until she had forcibly called things to a halt still in the mistaken belief that she and Finn were going to one day star in their own epic love story. However with Finn peering down at her in concern and knowing all that had happened in the days leading up to Sectionals she had forced the image from her mind and resolved to try again with Finn.

Almost needless to say the second attempt had not only been no better than the first but had in fact been a disaster of seismic proportions when the feel of his hand once again attempting to stroke her leg had caused her to bite his tongue so hard that it bled. Finn had been strangely reluctant to try again after that and Rachel had been forced to admit to herself that it probably wouldn't matter how many times they did try the results were unlikely to improve. It had been an easy enough realisation after that, that perhaps they were not meant to be anything more than friends.

Later that night Noah Puckerman had made a special guest appearance in her dreams and she had woken the next morning resolute in the knowledge that breaking up with him had been a huge mistake. She had gone to school determined to set things right between them, certain that by the time the end of the day rolled around that she and Noah would once again be together after all she was Rachel Berry and she had enough determination and tenacity to rule a small country but nothing had gone to plan.

_So much for not thinking about it _she thought as she shook herself out of her reverie to find Mercedes and Kurt both staring at her identical in their poses of one hand on hip and head tilted to the side as they studied her.

"Girl one of these days you are going to tell us the real story behind the whole Puckleberry Finn situation," seeing the look in Rachel's eyes Mercedes held up a warning hand making it very plain that she would not tolerate any interruptions. "I'm not saying it has to be today but it's going to be soon whether you like it or not." Kurt stood beside Mercedes nodding his head enthusiastically in agreement.

"Now Darling, you and I should really get to class, you know as well as I do how Mrs Jameson feels about tardiness." He air kissed the general direction of Mercedes' cheek before linking arms with Rachel and tugging her along after him. "You know if you ever want a little one on one girl talk I'm always available right?" he told her conspiratorially as they made their way down the hall. The sound of Mercedes' screech halted them momentarily.

"Diva boy don't you even think about trying to get the scoop without me."

"Damn," he muttered, "that girl's got ears like a jackal."

"I heard that," she screeched once more and Kurt wisely decided against continuing their current conversation until a more opportune moment presented itself namely on a day when Mercedes was not within a half mile radius.

The rest of the day had passed in a blur for Rachel, although she did as she always did, answering every question posed by her teachers and writing copious amounts of notes in each class, her heart really wasn't in it. Glee club really wasn't any better and although she thought she had given a good enough approximation of enthusiasm in her solo she couldn't help but notice Mr Schue shaking his head in disappointment at the end.

At home it was no better, she continued to go through the motions, avidly recounting every last detail of what her school day had entailed to her fathers' and rhapsodizing on and on about all of the attributes of the latest show to hit Broadway but to no avail. Although they never said a word Rachel could clearly see in both of their eyes that they were worried about her and weren't falling for her over the top enthusiasm anymore. They could tell something wasn't right with their little girl but were reluctant to cause her more pain by calling attention to it.

As quickly as she could she escaped to her room looking as she always did to the camera set up on its tripod ready to record her latest musical masterpiece for her MySpace page but inspiration was nowhere to be found and the camera remained just as sadly neglected as it had in the past months.

She turned from it quickly, pulling on her tank top and skimpy shorts she always wore to bed in the warmer months and climbing into her bed. She briefly considered grabbing her IPod and drowning out her thoughts with music but not even her beloved Barbra or Celine held any interest for her at this point in time.

So instead she lay on her pillow allowing the silent tears to stream down her face until she fell asleep.

The sound of her phone vibrating on the night stand beside her bed eventually registered in her sleep addled brain as she squinted her eyes at the alarm clock beside her bed sure that she must be hallucinating as the bright green numbers proclaimed the time as 2:47am.

Groggily she reached for the phone, holding it to her ear and clearing her throat before she pushed the answer button. Greeting her unknown caller she waited for a moment for an answer before realising that perhaps her initial assessment had been correct and this was nothing more than a prank call, a likely assumption given the lateness of the hour. She was just about to hang up when she heard it.

"Rach, its Pu... ahh Noah. I need you."

She remained silent for a moment, waiting to wake up from this crazy dream. She had always known that she was complex but really, dreaming that she was dreaming had gone from plain complex to completely bizarre in her own personal opinion. She could hear him breathing on the other end of the line and the loud sound of an infant bawling. Any moment now she would wake up from this weird hallucination and would spend the remainder of the night trying to pretend that dreaming about him once more meant absolutely nothing, something she had spent more nights than she cared to admit to, in recent times doing.

"Rach..." he tried again and in desperation she reached out a hand gripping a decent portion of the skin on her forearm between her thumb and forefinger and squeezing as hard as she could.

"Ouch," she let out a small squeal, immediately clapping a hand over her mouth as she realised just what the fact that the pinch had hurt meant.

"Rach, are you ok?" he asked uncertainly.

"Ahh what? Oh of course I am Noah, you just startled me somewhat with the impetuousness of your call. I wasn't expecting it especially at such an ungodly hour," and away her mouth raced almost as if it had a mind of its own with no concern for how she felt about the words currently spewing forth from it.

She finally managed to gain control of her vocal chords once more and clamped a hand over her mouth gasping as she realised just how what she had said had probably sounded to him.

"You're right," he agreed. "I shouldn't have called."

"Noah, no I didn't mean..." but it was too late she heard the sound of him hanging up almost before his name had even passed her lips. Stifling the urge to scream her frustration she quickly scrolled through her contacts until she found his name stabbing at the button that would make the call so hard she was surprised she didn't break a nail. It gave a few short rings before going immediately to voice mail; she hung up, trying again straight away but to no avail as his recorded message once again greeted her attempt.

Barely pausing long enough to pull on a pair of black ballet flats and a light weight jacket she grabbed her keys from her dressing table and her phone just in case by some miracle he did decide to call back and moved swiftly and silently down the stairs. Getting into her car she prayed to whatever deity might be listening that she wasn't about to make a colossal mistake and drove in the direction of the home Finn had once let slip that Noah and his baby now lived in. She wasn't entirely sure just what it was she was going to do when she got there but she hoped to God she could come up with a plan sometime between now and then. Before all of that inane babble had escaped from her mouth she had heard him say the exact words she had been longing all of her life to hear, _"Rach I need you," _and right now there wasn't a single thing in this world that could come between her and the boy who had uttered them.

**AN I actually had a dream like Rachel thinks she's having**** in this chapter last night where I was dreaming that I was dreaming unfortunately there was no Puck in mine though. lol. However it was totally bizarre and I couldn't resist throwing the idea in here.**


	3. Meet The Puckerman's

**AN:- **Ok so this definitely took longer than I had intended and I don't really have any excuses bar pure laziness, well that and the fact that work has totally been kicking my ass lately. But anyway I'm back and hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait. If nothing else well at least I managed to make it longer than the last couple. As always I'll try not to leave it so long between updates again next time but no guarantees.

**Disclaimer:- **I own nothing!!

Tentatively Rachel knocked on the door waiting on a response that didn't come; she could hear the sound of a baby crying from within, that and the light shining through the crack in the blinds the only indication of life coming from the house. She knocked again, more forcefully this time, she didn't know why after all this time that Puck had finally initiated contact but she wasn't going to leave without finding out. Her knocks still went unanswered and opening her fist she slammed her palm against the door frustration building inside of her. She hadn't driven all the way over here in the middle of the night for him to just ignore her. Just as she drew her arm back to try once more the door opened and she froze at the sight before her.

Puck stood there, shirtless wearing only a pair of jeans that had seen better days riding low on his hips, holding a squalling infant against his chest and she almost did a double take at the sight. This was not the Puck she knew, the mohawked lothario with the ever present smirk had disappeared and in his place was someone Rachel barely recognised. The Mohawk had grown out and he was in need of a haircut, the smirk was gone and in its place was a look of absolute defeat and exhaustion.

He stood there staring back seemingly unable to believe that she was there on his doorstep. He made no move to let her in, seemingly frozen in place much like she was. His eyes searched hers but she had no idea what it was he was looking for. The baby in his arms let out another yell which effectively snapped them both out of their daze and her eyes for the first time properly took in the baby in his arms. She was without doubt the most beautiful thing Rachel had ever seen. Her hair was dark and the eyes staring back at her were an almost identical shade of green to the boy's holding her and were framed with dark lashes.

"Rach what are you doing here?" he asked frowning.

"That's not quite the welcome I was hoping for Noah," she said smiling slightly, hoping that maybe just maybe she would get one in return but he just stood there staring at her. "I uh... I came because you called me," she said stumbling slightly over her words as she was filled with an inexplicable nervousness. _Had she somehow got it wrong? Had he hung up so suddenly because he realised he had made a mistake by calling her? _She stood silently waiting for some kind of sign from him, hoping that his next move would give her some clue on how she should proceed but he gave her nothing just staring back at her much like she was doing to him.

She cleared her throat and tried again. "I came to help and I really can't do that from out here now can I?" she said regretting her words almost instantly as she saw a flash of something decidedly unpleasant cross his eyes. It looked like once again her mouth had got the better of her and she had messed things up totally.

For one interminably long moment she thought he was going to slam the door in her face, but as she watched his shoulders slumped and he stood aside wordlessly inviting her into his home. She stepped past him briefly glancing around the room she had walked into but barely taking in any of the details as she felt his eyes boring into her back. She looked back over her shoulder at him and found him once again staring at her questioningly obviously looking for some kind of answer from her; the only problem was she didn't know what the question was and by the looks of him he wasn't about to tell her. In fact looking at him now she wasn't sure he was ever going to say anything at all. The moment stretched on and she had to literally bite her tongue to stop herself from filling the awkward silence with inane chatter.

Turning around to face him fully she nodded her head to the swathed bundle in his arms that had for the moment at least stopped crying. "Aren't you going to introduce us?" she asked once again smiling in his direction but by now she no longer held out hope for a smile from him in return.

"This is my daughter Sienna," he said softly, his eyes never leaving her face as he spoke.

She moved closer to him reaching out and tentatively running a finger down Sienna's cheek, wiping away the tears that had gathered there.

"Hi Sienna, I'm Rachel," she looked up at Puck. "Can I hold her?" she asked. She saw the flash of indecision in his eyes and she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was going to refuse her request. "Please," she said quietly holding out her arms towards the two of them. He still looked uncertain but as she watched she could see the precise moment where he obviously decided she could be trusted, still saying nothing he silently held out his little girl for Rachel to take from him.

Rachel couldn't help the smile that painted her features the moment the baby was placed in her arms. She lowered her face down towards the little girl inhaling deeply. "I love the way babies smell," she told him before ducking her head allowing her hair to fall across her face effectively hiding her from his gaze embarrassed at her admission. He was still looking at her like as if he thought he was imagining her presence in his living room.

She looked up again, catching him in the midst of a huge yawn. "Noah why don't you try to get some sleep? I can stay for a while until Sienna settles if you like; you look dead on your feet."

"Look Rach I appreciate the offer and all but I don't think it's a good idea. She's not used to being with anyone other than me and sometimes my mom. I don't want to freak her out."

"Noah I can assure you I am not going to, as you so eloquently described _freak_ her out, please just get some sleep, I promise you Sienna will be perfectly safe with me. Don't you think you'll be much better equipped to deal with her in the morning if you've had a decent sleep?"

He still looked uncertain and Rachel reached out laying a hand on his forearm, "Go to bed," she told him, "We'll be fine."

His gaze shifted to her hand on his arm and she immediately moved to take it back, but before she could, his own hand came to rest on top of hers.

"Rachel I..." but he didn't finish whatever it was he was going to say instead he simply said, "Thanks Rach," and turned and headed up the stairs He really wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing but something inside of him told him that he could trust Rachel with his little girl and he knew he would be right upstairs if they needed him. He walked into his room and threw himself down on the bed not even bothering to undress or pull the covers over him; he was too exhausted to care.

For the first time since she had entered the house Rachel took the time to have a good look around. While there were definite signs that he had made some attempt at keeping the house clean and tidy it was also very apparent that he was struggling to keep up with everything that needed doing. From where she stood she could see into the kitchen and the pile of dirty dishes that adorned the bench near the sink, there were clothes belonging to both Sienna and Puck himself draped over the back of chairs in the living room and a few fast food containers lay abandoned on the coffee table along with some empty baby bottles. Sienna let out another wail from her place in Rachel's arms drawing her attention back and Rachel immediately forgot all about housework and focused solely on the little girl in her arms.

"Well little one, what am I going to do with you?"

* * *

Puck woke with a start, a feeling of dread forming a rock in his gut, something was wrong but he was surrounded by nothing but silence. There were no give away sounds to help explain his sudden inexplicable fear. His gaze flickered towards his window and the feeling immediately grew worse as he saw the slivers of light shining through his blinds.

_Shit, sunlight, silence. Why the hell hadn't Sienna woken him by now? _He sat bolt right up in bed, his feet automatically going to the floor as he lurched out of bed racing into his little girl's room. He could see as soon as he reached the door that the crib was empty but he still ran to it, grabbing the blankets and tossing them across the room as if he somehow believed that his daughter may still be there but the crib was definitely empty. His gaze went automatically to the baby monitor beside the crib but there were no tell tale green lights glowing on it. Someone had switched it off. He bolted from the room, taking the stairs two at a time and ran towards the front door; he wrenched it open and was halfway out when a soft voice stopped him.

"Noah, what are you doing?"

He spun around, his eyes searching out the owner of the voice; spotting Rachel lying on the couch with Sienna, he heaved a sigh of relief before a wave of anger welled in his gut.

"Berry, what the fu..."

She put a finger to her lips shushing him before her gaze flickered down to the sleeping infant on her chest. The little girl stirred momentarily before settling back into sleep.

_No fucking way, Berry did not seriously just shush me?_

But his voice when it came again was noticeably quieter.

"What the fuck Berry, you nearly fucking killed me."

She looked at him quizzically. "I'm afraid I don't understand Noah, how did I almost kill you?" she asked softly.

"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that I didn't know where the hell my little girl was and that stupid fucking monitor was silent for like the first time ever."

She still looked confused.

"It always makes this weird noise like when you haven't tuned your radio in right," he found himself explaining, although just why he was explaining anything to her at the moment he had no idea. She was the one who needed to start explaining.

He watched as realisation dawned on her features quickly transforming to guilt as she realised just how terrified he had been.

"Noah I'm so sorry, I didn't even think."

"Yeah that much is pretty obvious," he muttered.

"I went upstairs to get her a diaper and I thought I should turn it off until I put her down and then came back down here and well I guess we just fell asleep."

Puck looked at his daughter obviously safe and felt his heart rate slowly start to subside. She looked so peaceful curled up on Rachel's chest and he didn't really want to disturb her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rachel's cheeks flush as his gaze remained on her and it was only then that he actually noticed just how limited her clothing was and with the way Sienna was lying the little tank top Rachel wore had crept up even more exposing the bare skin of her stomach to his eye. For a moment he actually wondered just when it was that the body snatchers had invaded him because there is no way in hell that the old Puck would have had a half naked girl on his couch and barely even noticed. Sienna made a strange little snuffling sound in her sleep and he was reminded of just how much he had indeed changed from the old Puck as his eyes automatically went to his daughter again. He made a move towards her but Rachel held up a hand.

"I know you were worried Noah but she was up for hours last night and she's only just settled down after her last feed," she glanced at her watch seemingly surprised at the time. "Oh its later than I thought, she must be almost due to be fed again."

This time it was Puck who looked confused. "How the hell do you know so much about kids?" he asked her not bothering to hide his bemused tone.

"My uh my cousin Leon had a baby last year... I mean his wife did."

"Yeah I kind of gathered that Berry," he told her, a small amount of amusement creeping into his voice.

She blushed a little before rushing back into speech, "Anyway they had a baby and I guess I kind of helped out quite a bit, you know with babysitting and stuff."

"Wow whatever happened to McKinley's walking, talking dictionary?" he asked her noticing for the first time that she wasn't the usual Rachel. Normally he would only be able to work out about one in three words when she spoke but for once she was actually talking like a normal person and he found himself wondering what the hell had happened to her since he had left McKinley.

"Anyway Noah, all I'm trying to say is that I used to look after little Darien quite a bit and I became quite proficient at all of the associated tasks such as changing diapers and giving bottles.

He couldn't help the tiny grin that crossed his features as some of the old Rachel started to slip back out, before he could comment on it though Sienna let out a sleepy cry that spurred him into action. He knew from past experience that he had only a very short window of time from that first little cry to prepare her bottle before there his little girl would be screaming for it.

He walked into the kitchen, grimacing as he remembered that he hadn't gotten around to making up a new batch of formula last night so he was going to have to start from scratch. Sienna was going to be screaming any second. He stopped startled as he noticed that all of the bottles that had been lined up on the sink waiting to be washed and sterilised before being made up again were now gone. Without allowing himself to think too much on it he walked towards the fridge and opened it to find six newly made up bottles sitting there waiting to be warmed. He doubted Rachel had any idea just how much help that simple act had been. He pushed the thought aside as something to come back to later.

He heard Sienna's cries come closer and turned to find Rachel standing behind him, cradling Sienna against her chest and he couldn't help but notice how natural she was with a baby in her arms. He couldn't help but compare the way she instinctively cuddled the little girl to her chest to the way Quinn her own mother had reacted when Sienna was placed in her arms for the first time. Quinn had looked totally uncomfortable and had passed the baby back to the nurse almost immediately, making some excuse about not wanting to upset her.

Placing the bottle in the warmer and switching it on he turned back to Rachel, holding out his arms for his daughter.

"Uh, thanks for your help Rach, but I've got it. You should probably get going, your dads will be wondering where you are."

"I can stay a little longer Noah, why don't you go have a shower; you look like you could use one?" As she spoke her eyes trailed over his body, before once again finding their way to his face, she quickly averted her eyes when she found him watching her, the slightest hint of a smirk on his lips. The old Puck would have seized an opportunity such as this for some sexually laced innuendo that would have left her blushing but Noah didn't say a word, simply holding out his arms for Sienna once again.

"We'll be fine Rach, like I said before thanks for your help but you don't need to stay."

As she looked in his eyes Rachel somehow knew that if she left as he so obviously wanted her to that he wouldn't call her again, she knew that his pride would prevent him from reaching out to her no matter how much he may need her help and she realised that everything hinged on this moment. She had missed him in the months since she had last seen him and there was no way she was about to walk away from him now especially when he so obviously needed her help.

Puck watched as she stood there silent for a moment, he could almost see the wheels turning in her head as the thoughts flashed behind her eyes. He saw the look of determination settle on her face and rushed into speech before she could refuse to leave. There was no way he wanted her to stay here feeling sorry for him so he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind, "I'm sure your boyfriend will be wondering where you are, Hudson would shit a brick if he knew you had spent the night here."

Her mouth clamped closed again as she took in his words, the confusion she felt was clearly evident on her features. "What are you talking about Noah, Finn and I ceased our relationship more than a month ago?"

He tried not to let the surprise show on his face even as a million thoughts raced through his mind. _What the fuck happened there? I never thought him and Berry were right for each other but Rachel was totally in love with the guy and Finn used to follow her around like a lovesick puppy. I thought once they finally got their shit together that they'd be in it for the long haul._

She was still standing there staring at him obviously waiting for him to answer her question but he had no idea what he was supposed to say. If he told her what he really thought she would probably get all huffy and never speak to him again although just why the hell that mattered so much he wasn't completely sure since barely five minutes before he'd been doing his damnedest to get her to leave.

"Doesn't matter," he said with a shrug, "look if you're sure you don't mind hanging around a bit longer I might jump in the shower, but once I come back downstairs Berry you're gone. Ok?"

She nodded her agreement but he couldn't shake the feeling in his gut that he was not going to be able to get rid of her that easily and worse he wasn't even sure anymore that he wanted to.


End file.
